Abstract
Half a century and major historical upheavals lie between the creation of the two works by Richard Strauss that can be heard in the 4th Philharmonic Concert: In the tone poem Don Quixote (1897), the composer was inspired by Cervantes' famous chivalric novel to create a score full of illustrative effects. He created a no less artistic tone painting of a completely different kind in his old age with the Four Last Songs (1948) based on poems by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff, which are characterised entirely by the motif of farewell. The soloist will be the German soprano Hannah-Elisabeth Müller, who has become famous for her Zdenka in Strauss' Arabella under Christian Thielemann. General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Philharmonia Zurich.